


Mrs. Amperson Evidently Lost Her Shit

by Cut_the_Chain



Series: Cut The Chain Drabbles [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Before Maktion, CtC, Cut The Chain - Freeform, Drabble, Graceland (CtC), High School, Negative Representation of Religion, Teacher Attacking Student, Unrealistic Situation, light Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-06-19
Packaged: 2018-04-05 04:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4165041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cut_the_Chain/pseuds/Cut_the_Chain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gilbert couldn't remember ever fitting in, but this was the first time any one had hit him for it and he would certainly remember it. </p>
<p>Too distracted by his friend, who happens to be a tree outside his classroom window, and due to his lack of brain to mouth filter, Gilbert manages to enrage the teacher who likes him the least. What follows shatters the mundane and typical nature that Wednesdays are known for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mrs. Amperson Evidently Lost Her Shit

**Author's Note:**

> Heya~ This is a drabble about my character Gilbert Pierce. There is a lot of background I should go into but that would take way to long so lets go with the quick and dirty version; 
> 
> -Gilbert Pierce lives in a community called Graceland that is more or less a religious cult.  
> -He has no friends and is ostracized due to his curious nature and inability to keep his mouth shut.  
> -His teacher Mrs. Amperson hates him.
> 
> That should be plenty to lay the ground work for the following drabble. (Drabble being a term used liberally)  
> That's about it, thanks for stopping by! (〃^∇^)ﾉ

Tick tock tick tock. It echoed in Gilbert’s head. He glanced at the clock on the wall and his faced tensed with annoyance. ‘Well, it’s been almost three minutes since I last checked. That’s not too bad; not as bad as usual at least,’ he thought. Gilbert averted his eyes to the tree outside…again. 

He was well acquainted with this old tree. It was a massive tree that stood beside his school and could be seen from exactly four of his seven class rooms this trimester. Technically if the wind blew hard enough he could see it from math class too but Gilbert didn’t count that. 

He gave a passing thought to the fact that none of those observations really mattered because nobody was ever gonna care or ask how many classes he could see Willow from. They also wouldn’t care that he named the tree Willow or that he had created a back story for her about how she had always wanted to be a Willow tree. How she wanted to dance gracefully in the wind and feel the hands of little children gently pulling back the curtains of her leaves to peek within and see if their friends were hiding there during the latest game of hide and seek.

A loud smack erupted on his desk and it was only through sheer familiarity that he didn’t jump or react. After a half second of gathering his thoughts he turned his face to the women beside him. She was old and wracked with wrinkles. Her gray hair was pulled up into a tight and high bun behind her. Her outfit was impeccable as always and he felt a dash of amusement remembering the time he walked in on her ironing her jacket during lunch break. The ruler held firmly in her hand had a few dents and a noticeable chip in it from it’s repeated abuse, mostly on his own desk. 

The moment there eyes met she spoke with a harsh and disappointed voice, “For the last time pay attention. I don’t want to see you daydreaming again young man.”

“I wasn’t daydreaming this time. You can tell because I didn’t look happy. At least it didn’t feel like I looked happy. I definitely wasn’t happy so it would be strange if I had unconsciously looked happy. I also,” Gilbert was cut off by more disappointment.

“Enough, I don’t care about what you were doing. I only care that it wasn’t what you were supposed to be doing. Pay attention.” The old Eagle as Gilbert thought of her continued down the rows of desks. 

“Uh wait, excuse me Mrs. Amperson. I really wasn’t paying attention what am I supposed to be doing right now.” Gilbert called after her.

“Shhh,” She hissed. 

He thought it strange. It didn’t sound like he said that all that loudly to him.

“It is quite study time right now, read After Restart quietly.” She said stressing the quietly. 

“Oh,” that made sense but, “I was talking just as loud as you were.” He realized his mistake when her shoulders tensed.

“I would very much appreciate it if we could make it through one class without you back sassing me.” 

Uh oh, He winced as she came storming back towards his desk, ‘Ahhh, I never know what I should say when she says that,’ he thought. He took a slightly longer and deeper than average breath and spoke out loud without any clue what was about to come out, “I really don’t know how to respond to that. I never do but you say it at least once a week. What would be my ideal response for you?” His brows furrowed a tiny bit, ‘Yeah that works, complete honesty and I’ll finally know what to say. Yeah that was a great answer.’ He had just finished this thought when Mrs. Amperson reached his desk with a slightly red tint to her face. 

“My ideal response from you would be, “I will respect you and not question your authority again Mrs. Amperson,” But don't worry you will be very well versed in that sentence because you will be staying after school with me today to write it one hundred times.” She turned to storm off.

Gilbert wisely lowered his voice and said, “Excuse me Mrs. Amperson but I already have detention with Mr. Kelly tonight. Perhaps I could come after that or tomorrow, well tomorrow me and Mrs. Hedge are spending some quality time together but I could stop by and see you after that or Friday. I don’t have detention on Friday yet.”

“You think it’s so funny having to juggle your multiple detentions don’t you?” 

“No, not at all it’s super annoying and leaves me very little time to do what I want.”

“You wouldn’t have such a problem if you would just behave.”

“I would love to behave but no one will take the time to explain to me what I’m doing wrong.” Gilbert raised his voice and hands in frustration. He leaned his elbows on the table and buried his face in his hands, “I don't try to misbehave, It’s just a god given curse that I’m amazing at it.”

“How dare you! You will be coming in for Saturday detention for blaming your behavior issues on the Lord.” 

He shot back in his chair and glared at her, “That doesn’t make any sense! Scripture 17:48 Realization, “He made us to be exactly who we are,” That means I am exactly how he made me. I’m not blaming him but I’m not about to thank him for my issues.”

“You are taking it too literally. You chose your own path and you have chosen to behave badly.”

“Really, because I literally have no clue what I keep doing wrong but I would appreciate if you could tell me so I could promptly stop doing it.” 

“All you need to do is sit in class quietly.” 

“That is exactly what I was doing. I mean that is the complete and full summary of what I was doing.”

“Fine Gilbert,” her frustration was laced and intertwined with those words, “You need to sit in class quietly and pay attention. You also need to be here Saturday for detention. If I were you I would swallow what ever response you just formulated, get your book out, and start quietly studying before that detention turns into a double.”

Gilbert contemplated it for a moment. He gave a huge smile that didn't reach his eyes as he thought, ‘Whelp, not like I had anywhere to be or anyone to hang out with this Saturday.’

“But Mrs. Amperson if you were me you would have behavior issues and you would respond and look I just proved my point.” He heard it echo around him. The small heavily covered and muffled gasps with an odd entertained snort from his classmates. At least he was good for something he thought as happily as he could about such a bitter concept.

Mrs. Amperson’s face blossomed in anger and probably a little embarrassment. “You just earned a double detention on Saturday. You had better cancel any plans you had.” She sent a glare around the class; efficiently quieting every one down. 

“Don’t worry I didn’t have any plans,” He said loud enough for her to hear but added in a whisper, “I never do.” He pulled out his book and began mindlessly flipping through pages too fast for anyone to think he was actually reading but slowly enough that Mrs. Amperson couldn’t call him on it without looking paranoid. 

He glanced once more at Willow and with a sad smile thought, ‘Yeah, me too Willow. I wish I was someone else too, but hey at least we are spending Saturday together. Really there isn’t anyone else I’d rather…’

This time he was pulled from his musings by Mrs. Amperson yelling his name as she hobbled on her old and creaking legs back to his desk again. She moved with a hurry he hadn’t seen from her since the science lab caught on fire, and really that fire had completely been an accident and totally not his intention.

His face fell again and he sighed, “Does it make any difference that I’ve already read After Restart enough to quote the whole thing to you?” 

“Do you think it makes any difference?” She was furious now, and breathing heavily through her nose as she arrived at his desk. 

Urrg, he hated the way teachers loved this question game, he always got the answer wrong, “Yes, honestly I think it should. 11:69 After Restart, “And they should do what they are good at. It was the lords gift to them and they should practice it. And they should not be tested the same. To test them on second nature would be to waste everyones time and the Lord is not liberal with how much of that he gives us.” 

“Ha!” The sound was harsh and cruel as it was ripped from Mrs. Amperson’s mouth by her apparently uncontainable anger. The whole room froze and held their breath. He had never heard that from her before. Never heard laughter from her in general and he could feel his skin prickle with excitement. Mrs. Amperson never did anything new or interesting. Until now it had always been the same tired worn out lines she was always handing out. Lines he strongly suspected were even older than her and that was saying something. He locked eyes with her as his own breath caught in his throat. She finally got what she wanted. Right now, at this moment he was not only paying attention, he was hanging on her every word.

She continued with far more venom in her voice than her typical thinly veiled hatred for him, “Oh now that is truly funny. Are you implying that anything comes second nature to you? For you to sit in your chair with your smug face and blatantly disrespect me is one thing but for you to twist our sacred writings to fit your purpose is unacceptable.” Her voice was steadily increasing in volume until she was screeching, “Nothing comes second nature for the likes of you. You would have to be good at something for it to be second nature. In your entire life I have never seen a redeeming quality or even semi remarkable skill.” Her voice dropped low while staying loud enough for adjacent classrooms to hear, it rasped with emotion as she finished, “Nothing comes second nature for you, and nothing ever will.”

The class remained silent making it easy to clearly hear the heavy footsteps rushing down the hall to help handle what was obviously a situation at this point. 

Gilbert felt the same mixture he always did when teachers got really mad at him. On one hand he didn’t want to make them mad but on the other this was the most exciting his life ever got. Through a great deal of practice he kept the excited smile off his face as he replied, “Well, that’s not what I was implying at all. I think you might be taking the quote I gave you way too literal.” 

Several things happen very quickly after that. The door from the hall was thrown open and two teachers came storming in while he continued speaking completely unaware of what was coming.

Also Mrs. Amperson evidently lost her shit.

Gilbert carried on speaking without pause “I just meant,” 

THWAK…

The silence in the room broke with the sound of Mrs. Amperson’s hand striking Gilbert hard across the face. Immediately following were the gasps from both the other children and teachers in the doorway. 

It certainly surprised Gilbert but after the two-seconds it took for shock, confusion, and realization to dance across his face he turned his stinging face back towards Mrs. Amperson to lock eyes with her again and say with a cheerful smile, “I want you to know I know you did that out of anger and I completely forgive you.” 

He hadn’t even finished the word “you” when the next slap hit him. The teachers finally recovered from their own shock. They hollered Mrs. Amperson’s name and rushed across the room to them while a third blow hit Gilbert. This one came as a fully formed punch to the eye. 

Mrs. Amperson had wound up for another punch when Mr. Kelly reached them. He grabbed her arm with his right hand while winding his left arm around her thin waist and pulling her away. “Mrs. Amperson you need to calm down and contain yourself. He’s just a child.” His words were loud. Well, at least loud for the soft spoken nature that Mr. Kelly was known for. He tried to maintain an air of calm to his tone in hopes of it bleeding into the full blown scene that had graced this otherwise mundane Wednesday. 

Mrs. Amperson however seemed too frenzied to even understand the meaning of the word calm. “I’ve had enough, he is the spawn of Satan, there is no other explanation. He is a monster unfit to enjoy the splendors of the good Lord’s world. The only thing we haven’t tried is beating the evil out of him. It’s our last option before we must resort to permanently removing him from the beauty he doesn’t mmmph rragrmph,” Mrs. Hedge reached her colleagues just in time to clamped a hand over Mrs. Amperson’s mouth before she could finish her death threat. Mr. Kelly began dragging the hysterical teacher from the classroom. 

Now, Mrs. Hedge was always a bit frazzled. From walking down the halls to eating lunch she always seemed uptight. Like she was on high alert constantly, always waiting for a calamity to strike. Panicked in the calmest of settings she seemed, not surprisingly, completely freaked out. Her eyes were blown wide open and bulging slightly while she wore a terror stricken expression. “Mrs. Amperson! Mrs. Amperson! Oh my dear, goodness gracious, please, please calm down!” It seemed strange to hear such a frantic voice begging for someone to calm down. 

Mr. Kelly had just reached the doorway with the violently thrashing women in his arms when Mrs. Hedge shrieked and pulled her freshly bitten hand to her chest. Mrs. Amperson’s voice filled the room again, “Don’t even pretend you don’t agree! Now one likes that hell spawn. No one will miss him. No one should have to put up with him!” 

Mr Kelly finished wrenching the screaming teacher from the room. As he pulled her down the hall the sound of more teachers converging upon them could barely be heard over Mrs. Amperson’s chanting. 

She had begun yelling anti possession prayers addressed to Gilbert, “We ask for your love and light in the wake of the loss of your son Gilbert. We beg of you to return his soul to his body so he may yet again serve the purpose you have chosen for him.” Her yelling continued down the hall fading substantially as the mob of teachers hit the stair well and descended to the second floor. 

A heavy and awkward silence filled the room again.

“Well, personally I think anti possession prayers should have been used before physical force but I may be a bit biased.” Gilbert’s voice broke Mrs. Hedge from her aimless gazing down the now empty hall. 

“Gilbert, oh my gracious, Gilbert what did you do?” She looked at him as she spoke. Eyes watering looking lost and horrified.

“I didn’t do anything unusual! Or you know unusual for me. I think we should all finally admit that Mrs. Amperson can’t stand me. This is most likely not a reaction to an instance but an accumulation of instances.” Gilbert finished but realization blossomed on his face as he added, “I also don’t think it’s appropriate to suggest that I did something to warrant getting hit! It doesn’t matter what I said or did. It’s not my fault she attacked me.” 

Mrs. Hedge looked even more panicked than during that aforementioned science lab fire, and really she was overreacting then too. It was tiny and had been extinguished before the fire department even showed up.

“Oh Gilbert, Gilbert, I… I don’t think it was your fault but…” She trailed off at a loss for words. She looked uneasy, uncomfortable, uncertain, unsettled, and untrusting. Gilbert's face fell and his own eyes watered. He realized bitterly that was quite a lot on “un” words to sum up that she blamed him for Mrs. Amperson’s breakdown. 

If he had been thinking, if he was a “good kid”, if he didn’t have issues, if he didn’t have questions, if he fit in, if he was the equivalent to the willow tree Willow wished she was, he would have kept his mouth shut. 

He wasn’t though. That happened to be the biggest problem in his life, the biggest problem in his parents life, and apparently the biggest problem in his teachers professional lives too. So he opened his mouth and the words poured out, “But what? But implies I’m to blame! I did everything I could to prevent this. Yes, I can’t keep my mouth shut, everyone knows that! I told everyone Mrs. Amperson and I don’t get along. I requested from my parents, the principal, and even the school board to be moved out of her class. I don’t try to be but I know I’m difficult. I’d have to be clueless not to know. I’m already fifteen so the chances of that changing are rapidly dwindling. She’s partially right too. No one should be forced to deal with me but that doesn’t give her any excuse to attack me.” 

Some where along the way he had stood up, “It wasn’t my fault and there is no “but” to it! I can quote you several verses that clearly say violence isn’t the fault of the victim but last time I did that I got punched in the face so excuse me if I’m not keen on repeating that experience.” 

The students were still in a state of shock mixed with morbid fascination, like a calamity you can’t tear your eyes off of. Mrs. Hedge was just as speechless as before. She glanced around as if looking for help but only found the impressional and judgmental eyes of those she was paid to lead and guide. She cleared her throat and squeaked out a shaky reply, “I’m very saddened to hear you’ve given up on trying to improve yourself.” 

Rage flared and built up inside Gilbert. His face and fists clenched as he closed his eyes with a grimace. The selective hearing he faced on a daily basis was absolutely ridiculous. He could feel the tension in the room. This was the moment everyone was waiting for, hoping for. All eyes on him praying for him to break, to snap, to lash out, to give them a semi decent reason to institutionalize him. He took a deep breathe, then another, and finally one more. He glared harshly at the ceiling for a couple seconds. 

Cursed his existence. 

Cursed Mrs. Hedge’s existence.

Cursed Mrs. Amperson’s existence.

Cursed his own existence once more for good measure.

One more deep breathe and he forced a smile. A well rehearsed bright and cheerful smile. Without any trace of malice or ill intent he spoke, “Oh Mrs. Hedge, I’ve given up on far more than bettering myself.” With that he sat down quietly and began actually reading the verses he knew by heart. 

There was yet even more silence, but really his life had always been a string of silences tied together with hushed murmurs of conversations he wasn’t welcome in, and loud disappointment he couldn’t escape. 

After a few more moments Mrs. Hedge began to awkwardly shuffle in place in the still open doorway. After twenty-seconds of that she tried to start a sentence no less than three times before spiting it out as frazzled as ever, “I…Well…Ple…Please return to quite study.” She shut the door and the click of her heels hurried off. Silence returned to it’s rightful place in quite study and free of teachers Gilbert returned his gaze to it’s rightful place out the window. 

He had a practiced ease in hiding the bitterness in his voice but alone in his head there was no hiding. No amount of practice helped him hide from himself. He absently wondered if he still had to attend detention on Saturday before returning to one sided small talk with Willow.

**Author's Note:**

> Congrats you made it to the end! Thanks so much for reading and don't worry, eventually Gilbert escapes Graceland and makes friends. Have a pleasant day (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧


End file.
